Saturday 14th. April 2012

I was up early yesterday morning , and after checking the weather forecast , bright morning with cloud and possible showers later , I set off for Old Lodge Reserve Ashdown Forest , to see if I could see some migrants before the leaves on the trees start to blot them out . As I left home there was a mist about  , but that would soon lift with the sunrise I thought . When I reached Biggin Hill the visibility was below 50 metres , but no worries , there was no mention of fog on the forecast . As I crossed the M25 at the bottom of Westerham Hill , it was front and back fog lights , and they stayed on till I pulled into the car park at the reserve . The car thermometer was reading 2C and I was thinking to myself , what am I doing here ? and what chance have I got of connecting with migrants in these conditions ? Fortunately I had put a variety of tops in the car , and proceeded to add to my tee shirt , a sweat shirt , a padded gillet , a heavy fleece along with thermal gloves and a woolly hat , and off I went on my migrant search . At least there was some birdsong in both Chiffchaff and my first Willow Warbler of the year singing in the car park . Entering the reserve was like stepping into some Dickens novel , with 20 metres visibility at best with water dripping from every tree and an almost deathly silence . Eventually a few birds were heard and seen , mainly Chaffinches , then from way down in the valley , the call of my first Cuckoo of the year . I thought I would head over the other side of the reserve and see if he was on one of the dead trees that they seem to favour . As I

approached the second tree , a bird appeared out of the fog , but it was not the migrant , but a Blackbird that started singing in such a doleful way , I thought I was at a funeral . I wandered around getting brief glimpses of a very watery sun , thinking , this is it , but it wasn't , as the fog got thicker and blotted it out again . By 8 o'clock , even with what I had on , I was cold and made my way back for a coffee at the car . As I was drinking it , another migrant hunter arrived at the car park with the greeting 'I thought this lot would have been gone by now' . Within a couple of minutes , the sky opened , the sun shone warmly and the fog where we were lifted . I didn't like to ask him his name as we took advantage of the change and set off , me top path , him left and down . Within seconds , a

flash of orangey red , as a male Common Redstart flew in and landed on some Gorse , staying just long enough to get two shots . Looking along the top path , it was obvious that the clearance was just in the area around the car park and extending just 50 metres beyond , but I headed back into it and down towards the 'Cuckoo trees' again . Even the Blackbird had given up trying when I got there , but the other side of the path produced the first of several sightings of a pair of Woodlark . I didn't

realise it till I got home that they were collecting food for their young , and looking very bedraggled too . This species is an early nester , having the first of two broods in March . At about the same time , I'm pretty sure I heard a very distant Turtle Dove , but couldn't be certain . A couple more Cuckoo calls had me chasing from one part of the reserve to another , in total I heard 8 calls during the day , but never saw the bird , nor did anyone else that I spoke to . A pair of Chiffchaffs kept my

interest for some time ,as I watched the female toing and froing to their chosen Gorse patch , here arriving with some more material , whilst hubby sat in a tree 'chiff-chaffing' away , and sometimes

getting quite excited about the whole thing , or was he hopping mad that the wrong sort of material was being collected ? Shortly afterwards , the miracle happened , when within 2/3 minutes the sky became blue and the fog lifted , this time for good , and eventually the horizon was clear , mind you , it was almost 11 o'clock by now . Distant 'cronking' caught my attention , and I could see two large birds in the distance where the calls were coming from , but visibility still wasn't great , but at least one of them was a Raven , just from the calls . In trying to get closer to the birds quickly , I again

disturbed a female Fallow Deer , which quickly blended into the dead Bracken and disappeared . Once again ., I heard 'cronking' , and headed towards the spot , and of course the calls stopped before I got there . Just as I was about to give up , a Common Buzzard cruised into view in a now clear sky . I watched it drift effortlessly , looking for food from high up . Suddenly , I didn't see where from , a

black Exocet missile rose almost vertically to intercept the Buzzard , on the right in this shot . As it closed in , there was no defiance from the Buzzard , it just turned and ran . With the better weather , more birds were being seen and heard , including one male Common Redstart that was camera shy ,

but did show off his tail colouring nicely as he disappeared . Another patch of Gorse seemed very popular with three pairs of birds , Chiffchaff , Long Tailed Tit and Stonechat , with all species

collecting nesting materials . As usual , the male Stonechat perched on a good viewpoint , and this

time 'the wife' took her turn to pose as well , on the same spot . Things in the valley were quiet , but as I climbed back up the other side , I found two Tree Pipits . One flew off immediately , but the

second stayed a bit longer in the top of a Larch on the MoD land , not in full song or parachuting yet , just tuning up I would say . The climb back up onto the top path was very wet in places with quite a bit of standing water , the leftover from heavy thunderstorms over the last few days no doubt . Reaching the top path , and blowing a bit I must admit , I was rewarded with my best view of a male

Common Redstart of the day , and almost at the car park , what could have been the Willow Warbler

that greeted me on my arrival , still in full flow . With the better weather the more commoner species also put in an appearance , which gave a better finish than start to the visit . A couple of things found on my way around , firstly a very thoughtful birder/dogwalker , had provided the groomed hairs from

their dog , and placed them on the top of a small stake very close to one of the Redstart's favourite nesting areas , nice one . On the way home , I stopped at the Early Purple Orchid spot again , and this time found one flower in bud and a second about to bud , so they haven't gone completely . I also had

a look in the woodland area behind , and found a few plants in various stages , this being the furthest

forward . Also out in flower on the site was Greater Stitchwort / Stellaria holostea , a member of the Pink family .